Malaysian Chicken Curry Recipe

We love this curry, you can make is as hot or mild as you like - just add or remove a chilli or two. This is my titivated version of Gordon Ramsay's recipe from The F-Word and is well worth giving a go and I'm sure you will love it.

As to whether or not it's anything like a true Malaysian curry, I've no idea so perhaps we'll call it Malaysian-style curry.

Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients, it's easy to make and you can buy everything needed in any good supermarket. I made this for two but if you want it for four people I'd say you can just add more chicken and keep the sauce as it is. You could add a little more coconut milk and it should be fine.Gordon's original recipe has fine green beans in it, but I didn't have any so left them out. He also adds 2 tablespoons of fish sauce 😕 but I'm thinking this has to be a mistake in the recipe, surely it would be salty and horrid? I only used half a teaspoon and found this was enough - you can always add more if you like, but of course you can't remove it so beware!

Top Tip! The paste should have a lemongrass stalk - trimmed and outer leaves removed but I didn't have one so I added a squeeze of lime juice to taste towards the end of cooking not to the paste.

Yield: 2 Author: Jan Bennett

Malaysian Chicken Curry

We love this curry, you can make is as hot or mild as you like;just add or remove a chilli or two.This is my titivated version of Gordon Ramsay's recipe.

Gordon's original recipe has fine green beans in it, but I didn't have any so left them out. He adds 2 tablespoons of fish sauce but I'm thinking this has to be a mistake in the recipe, surely it would be salty and horrid? I only used half a teaspoon and found this was enough - you can always add more if you like, but of course you can't remove it so beware!

ingredients:

2 nice skinless chicken fillets - cubed

1 tablespoon groundnut or vegetable oil

2 medium onions - peeled and chopped into small dice

freshly ground black pepper

2 kaffir lime leaves - you can use dried, I did

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

200ml coconut milk

50ml chicken stock made from half a Knorr stock cube

2 teaspoons palm sugar (or soft brown sugar)

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce

1/2 a teaspoon fish sauce - *See my comment above - you can always add more later if you think you need to

To serve:

a handful of coriander leaves - roughly torn

For the Curry Paste:

3 garlic cloves - peeled

2-3 long red chillies - trimmed and deseeded

3cm piece fresh root ginger - peeled

3 shallots - peeled

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

1-2 tablespoons groundnut or vegetable oil

instructions

First make the curry paste. Put the garlic, chillies, (lemon grass if using), ginger, shallots and turmeric in a food processor and whiz to a paste.

With the motor running, trickle in a little groundnut oil and blend well, scraping the sides of the processor several times. (Or you can pound the ingredients together in batches using a pestle and mortar).

To make the curry, cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces. Heat the oil in a large cast-iron casserole or heavy-based pan. Tip in the curry paste and stir over a medium heat for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the onions and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes until they are beginning to soften.

Season the chicken pieces with pepper. Add to the pan and stir to coat them in the spice paste. Add the lime leaves, cinnamon stick, star anise, coconut milk, stock, sugar, soy and fish sauces and bring to the boil.

Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook gently for 30–40 minutes until the chicken is tender.

Skim off any excess oil on the surface of the curry - By the way, I didn't have to do any to skimming.

Taste and adjust the seasoning adding a squeeze of lime juice if you didn't add lemon grass.

Remove the cinnamon stick and stair anise. Scatter the coriander leaves over the curry and serve with some nice rice.

NOTES:

Top Tip! The paste should have a lemongrass stalk - trimmed and outer leaves removed but I didn't have one so I added a squeeze of lime juice to taste towards the end of cooking; not to the paste.

Hi and welcome I'm Jan. I love cooking and of course eating. It has to be said I do like a nice kitchen gadget or fifty. I'm concerned I might be a bit of a gadget hoarder and also a food shopaholic. Click on my photo to read more!